On Saturday March 14th, Professor Andrew Ross was barred by the UAE government from boarding an international flight from JFK to Abu Dhabi on the grounds of “security concerns”. He was on his way to the UAE for a research trip. Professor Ross of the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, president of AAUP at NYU and the author of more than a dozen books on labor, globalization and urban transformation among other topics, has been a vocal critic of NYU’s labor policies and practices in both its New York and Abu Dhabi campuses. The fact that Professor Ross was barred from travel to the UAE, the site of NYU’s main “global network” campus in Abu Dhabi represents a gross violation of academic freedom. As faculty and students in the Coalition for Fair Labor we have been working with our colleagues in NYU-AD over the last year to establish a dialogue and work on collaborative research as well as policy intervention, specifically in the area of migrant workers’ rights in Abu Dhabi. Banning a faculty member from entering a country because of their critical scholarship whether directed at the university and or the government is an unacceptable response by stakeholders of NYU’s “global network university” in Abu Dhabi and here in New York. We demand an immediate investigation and redress of this incident by the NYU administration.

Endorsed by:

GSOC-UAW
UAW Region 9A
NYU Student Labor Action Movement
Technical, Office and Professional Union, Local 2110 UAW
American Association of University Professors
NYU Law Students for Human Rights
NYU Students for Justice in Palestine

The statement was sent to NYU administration on March 16th. We have yet to receive a response. For more see: